Thug and Idol: 10X Rewards Second Identity System

Three hours later.

Tristan was half-way through the clothing sets on the rack when a new person entered—marched into—the photo set.

It was a tall woman in her mid-fifties with black hair held up with a pair of chopsticks. Despite her age, her style of clothing and makeup was youthful without being gaudy—a colorful skirt and a cardigan over a shirt with a flower pattern on it.

She held herself with dignity and self-assurance. Like a leader.

Tristan felt apprehensive the moment she appeared. Not only because she was a woman, and those usually spelled trouble. There was too much anger radiating from her.

"Mr. Joyland! I can't believe you would greenlight this photo set entirely on your own. What have you been thinking?!" the woman said right from the door.

Then she caught herself and nodded to Tristan, who was in the middle of holding a pose. "Apologies. You must be Mr. Gemello? My name is Mrs. Anette Depaul. I'm the head marketing manager for this fashion house, and was supposed to be involved in planning for this photo shoot."

She thre Joyland a venomous look. He went pale and stepped away from behind the camera, only to square his shoulders, glare at Depaul in return, and step back to his previous spot.

Around the photo set, the production team members paused mid-action as the drama unfolded.

"Nice to meet you," Tristan lied, glancing between Depaul and Joyland. "Are you saying there was an organizational mishap of some sort? Maybe everyone should take a 15-minute break while you two sort it out."

"Good, good, brilliant! Yes, do that, everyone!" Joyland exclaimed.

"Let's hope this mishap really can be solved in 15 minutes," Depaul muttered.

Tristan frowned.

'This is worse than I worried about. Joyland can barely make a decision—at least around me. Which… Well, I do have that influence on people.'

Considering what Tristan could do when he really tried, he shouldn't have been so surprised that Joyland's independence got dissolved by his presence.

'I suffer from success yet again—and then Depaul appears. Now HER I didn't need and didn't want here at all.'

She was bossy, even with Tristan's presence to distract her. If she didn't like the results of Joyland's photoshoot so far, Depaul might force them to start it all over again.

If they don't start fighting even worse, and the entire thing turns into a slog that takes weeks.

'Depaul already seems to think that today's photo shoot is as good as over.'

While Tristan was thinking, Joyland and Depaul moved to the side of the room for a conversation. There was a table with drinks and snacks, but neither of them touched a thing.

They were too busy trying not to raise their voices too much at each other.

"You always stifle the artistic flow, Depaul. We are selling people the dream! You are just selling them clothing."

"Artistic flow? You didn't even tell me how many photos you plan to take with Mr. Gemello! Will those be all that I needed? Will we need to hire another model? Do you know? Well, I don't! The chief executive gives you too much freedom, Joyland." Find your next adventure on empire

"It's just the right amount of freedom. Look, we already paid him to be here—I'm going to return to the photo shoot, Depaul."

"Yes? And make photos of this outfit he wears?" Depaul gestured angrily at Tristan, who's been lounging in a chair, drinking some water and effortlessly well pretending not to listen in.

Even in her anger and desire to get an upper hand in the argument, Depaul couldn't deny that Tristan looked good. It was hard not to be, with his sense of style and his poise.

But the upper part of the outfit wasn't picked by Tristan, so after a moment of pause, Depaul continued,

"That jacket doesn't go with this shirt. Leather and mesh just screams 'PUNK'. We don't want to scream, we want to just say it in an indoor voice. I will need to go through the other outfits, too—who put them together?"

Tristan passed his water bottle to Lenny with a grateful nod.

He gave his muscles a rest, watered himself—now he had to deal with these two.

'I must admit, at least Depaul knows what she wants. But even if I and Joyland kick her out of here temporarily, she can still put a damper on the results of the photo shoot later. I need to convince her long-term. I need her APPROVAL.'

With an annoyed huff, Tristan took off his jacket, then the mesh shirt underneath. Depaul and Joyland were too busy arguing to notice him doing this until he was putting the jacket back again, right over the naked torso.

Then Tristan stood up, brushed his hair back with a palm, and grinned.

"How about that, Mrs. Depaul? No shirt—no problem, hm?"

For a moment, both Depaul and Joyland choked on their words.

This combination of clothing certainly wasn't what Depaul aimed for, but it was making Tristan appear incredibly seductive. Every line of his hard-as-a-washboard abs was not just on display, it was artfully framed by brown leather.

He oozed charm with purpose, and it was hypnotizing enough that people around them paused in what they were doing so they could just stand and stare.

However, both Depaul and Joyland were people from industry where beautiful, half-naked people appeared so often that they became the norm.

Depaul, despite being visibly more affected, collected herself quickly enough to speak first.

"No, this just makes the outfit look like something from an adult magazine, Mr. Gemello. Our fashion house's reputation will only be damaged by the vulgarity if we publish photos of this."

Tristan knew all this. But he achieved what he wanted to—Depaul was still stern, but not as angry anymore.

Now he dropped the seductive act and reduced the charming aura a little, instead adding more fearsomeness into the way he stared down at the woman.

The straight lines of his back and shoulders would make sure that Tristan's words were taken seriously.

"I know—I also have a reputation to maintain. And I've seen nothing in those outfits that looked too outlandish for me or your fashion house. Just look at the photos Mr. Joyland took before you continue arguing. You still haven't done it."

Joyland nodded.

"You always start shouting before you—"

"Mr. Joyland, explain your artistic vision to Mrs. Depaul, not her perceived character flaws."n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Tristan almost winced when he realized he was slipping into his tougher, colder, more authoritative crime boss persona. This kind of talk wasn't something that would be always taken the same from the mouth of a pop-star.

In the eyes of many people in the showbiz industry, actors and singers were the most frivolous and dumb people in it. The constant public drama they created between themselves only enforced this opinion.

To Tristan's relief, Joyland jolted, but nodded.

"Right—exactly! Depaul, you might dislike this, but the project was approved, so if you just look here… Damn, someone, bring me my laptop! Mr. Gemello, come here too—I'm sure you are curious to see what we have done so far."

Tristan was. He and Depaul moved to the laptop that a technician connected to the camera and looked through the photos. All the while, Joyland was pointing out his favorite ones and explaining the feel and look that made them so great.

He was good at picking them, Tristan admitted. He himself wouldn't have made many different choices.

At first Depaul was frowning at Joyland's explanations, then nodding, then frowning again.

"This is good, Joyland. Mr. Gemello really has a way with the style—even more risky sets look just the right amount of punk on him," the words clearly cost her a lot of pride to say, "But it's still too… unorganized."

Joyland opened his mouth, clearly about to start another argument.

"Then why won't you organize Mr. Joyland's photos?" Tristan said before that. "If there's a problem, then solve it."

"It's not that simple!" Depaul exclaimed, then paused. "Well. Actually… That might work… Hm. Fine. This photo shoot was prepaid, and we already wasted an hour of it talking. Send me the copies of these, Joyland. I'm going to look through them right now, so that the plan outline for our graphic designers can be done together with the photos."

Joyland narrowed his eyes in suspicion.

"Really? I mean… Sure, sure."

"You will owe me for this one, Joyland. I was supposed to be home right now, not rushing all the way to the photo set and then to my office to work on my supposed holiday." Depaul shook her head. "Asshole."

In response, Joyland grinned at her. The sudden change of mood was giving Tristan a whiplash. Suddenly, he saw deep roots of strange friendship underneath the outward enmity.

"Bitch. I'm not sorry at all—you would've ruined this set."

Depaul grinned ferociously back at him and marched out.

Joyland turned away and clapped his hands once.

"Well, are you ready to continue, Mr. Gemello?"

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